Nuu-chah-nulth, also called Nootka , North American Indians who live on what are now the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, Can., and on Cape Flattery, the northwest tip of the state of Washington, U.S. The groups on the southeast end of the island were the Nitinat, those on Cape Flattery the Makah. The Nuu-chah-nulth are culturally related to the Kwakiutl. Their name means “along the mountains.” They speak a Wakashan language.

Local groups in the central and southern Nuu-chah-nulth regions were traditionally socially and politically independent; in northern areas they usually formed larger tribes with large winter villages. There were also several confederacies of tribes, dating to prehistoric times, that shared summer villages and fishing and hunting grounds near the coast. The Nuu-chah-nulth moved seasonally to areas of economic importance, returning to their principal villages during the winter when subsistence activity slowed.

Like several other Northwest Coast Indians, the Nuu-chah-nulth were whale hunters, employing special equipment such as large dugout canoes and harpoons with long lines and sealskin floats. The whale harpooner was a person of high rank, and families passed down the magical and practical secrets that made for successful hunting. There was also a whale ritualist who, by appropriate ceremonial procedures, caused whales that had died of natural causes to drift ashore. Many features of this whaling complex suggest ancient ties with Eskimo and Aleutcultures.

Before the Nuu-chah-nulth were colonized by Russia, England, Canada, and the United States, their religion centred on shamanism and animism. The most important Nuu-chah-nulth ceremony was the shamans’ dance, a reenactment of the kidnapping of an ancestor by supernatural beings who later gave him supernatural gifts and released him. The ceremony served to define each individual’s place in the social order. The public performance ended with a potlatch, a ceremonial distribution of property.

Early 21st-century population estimates indicated some 8,500 individuals of Nuu-chah-nulth descent.

Learn More in these related articles:

...Margaret Atwood and Rudy Wiebe. A Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt (1815) is a captivity narrative that describes Jewitt’s experience as a prisoner of the Nootka (Nuu-chah-nulth) chief Maquinna after Jewitt was shipwrecked off Canada’s west coast; on the whole, it presents a sympathetic ethnography of the Nuu-chah-nulth people. The Diary of Mrs....

North American Indians who traditionally lived in what is now British Columbia, Canada, along the shores of the waterways between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Their name for themselves means “those who speak Kwakwala.” Although the name Kwakiutl is often applied to all the...

Britannica Web sites

The Native Americans known as the Nootka live on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The island is part of British Columbia, a province of Canada. In the past some Nootka lived in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Washington. The Nootka call themselves Nuu-chah-nulth, which means "all along the mountains." The name refers to the mountains of Vancouver Island.

The Nuu-chah-nulth are a group of related American Indian tribes of the Pacific Northwest region of North America. They live on what is now the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, Canada, and on Cape Flattery-the northwest tip of the U.S. state of Washington. The Native American groups on the cape make up a branch called the Makah. The name Nuu-chah-nulth means "all along the mountains," referring to the mountains of Vancouver Island. The Nuu-chah-nulth people are also called the Nootka.